JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (September 15, 2006) - The ETSU women's tennis team kicked off their season Friday, splitting the team up and competing in the St. Mary's Classic hosted by Tennessee and the ETSU Fall Invitational in Johnson City.

In the opening day of competition at the ETSU Fall Invitational, former Lady Buc Sandie Knight (Adamstown, Australia) teamed up with newcomer Brittany Stewart (Brentwood, Tenn.) in flight two doubles and together the duo defeated Emma Knight and Jessica Matlosz of Georgia Southern, 8-4 before falling to Daniela Milano and Cassandra Price of Radford, 8-4. Knight and Stewart will take on Camila Noldin and Alexandra Spector of Radford in consolation play Saturday.

In singles action, Knight fell to Helena Sokolova of Lincoln Memorial, 6-1, 6-1 in flight one play. She will take on Trish Hanson of Western Carolina in consolation play Saturday, while Stewart defeated Jennifer Pardo of Lincoln Memorial, 6-0, 6-1, in flight four action to earn her first collegiate singles win. She will take on Lauren Wolken of Georgia Southern on Saturday.

"The competition was good, everyone seemed to have a good time today," said head coach Steve Brooks. "It's always tough to win your first college match, but I'm very proud of Brittany. After falling behind after the first set, she really fought back to win."

In the St. Mary's Classic, the third flight doubles team of Elena Volobueva (Barcelona, Spain) and Vita Moskaliova (Minsk, Belarus) advanced to the finals defeating Allison Barry and Agustina Arechavaleta of NC State, 8-3 and Christine Johnson and Whitney Spencer of Kentucky, 9-8. They will take on Samantha Orlin and Ghizela Schutte of Tennesse on Saturday

Junior Olya Batsula (Minsk, Belarus) and Tara Byrne (Johnson City, Tenn.) fell in flight one doubles to the No. 8 duo of Carolina Escamilla and Kim Coventry of Kentucky, 8-5, before falling to Ashlee Davis and Ana Jerman of WakeForest 8-4. They will face Alejandra Guerra and Berkely Brock of Purdue in consolation play on Saturday.

Competing in flight two doubles, Masha Ilina (Kyiv, Ukraine) and Yevgeniya Stupak (Kyiv, Ukraine) fell to Naoko Ueshima and Adrienne Elsberry of Georgia, 8-4 in the first round of play and then fell to Daria Petrovic and Julia Roach of NC State, 9-7. The duo will take on Cigdem Duru and Anna Dzeva.

Volobueva continued her winning streak, defeating Kristin Bleakley of NC State, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 in flight five singles. She will square off against Adrienne Elsberry of Georgia in the second round of play.

Batsula fell to No. 78 Ashlee Davis of WakeForest, 6-0, 6-3, in flight one singles. She will take on No. 35 Kim Coventry of Kentucky in consolation play on Saturday, while Ilina fell to Vicky Jones of Tennessee, 6-1, 6-1. She will face Cigdem Duru of Purdue in consolation play.

Competing in flight three singles, newcomer Yevgeniya Stupak fell to Naoko Ueshima of Georgia, 6-4, 6-2, she will Anna Dzeva of Purdue. In the first round of flight four action, sophomore Tara Byrne fell in a hard fought match to Samantha Orlin of Tennessee, 6-4, 6-4. Byrne will take on Berkely Brock of NC State in consolation play.

In the sixth flight, Vita Moskaliova fell to Kentucky's Caroline Winebrenner, 6-3, 6-0. She will square off against Lauren Berry of NC State in Saturday's consolation play.

"The team has been working really hard and they are in a level that they want to be in and they are playing against a level of players they want to play against," said Brooks. "They've earned this and I'm very happy for them. Everybody played strong today. They're all pumped up to get back in tomorrow and make tomorrow's matches even better."